EDITORIAL COMMENTS: The folly of justice

Exxon-Mobil Corporation in August
pleaded guilty in a U.S. district court
to violating the federal Migratory Bird
Treaty Act in five states during the past
five years. The company agreed to pay fines and
community service payments totaling $600,000 and
will implement an environmental compliance plan
during the next three years to prevent bird deaths on
the company’s sites. Exxon-Mobil has already spent
more than $2.5 million to begin implementation of
the plan, according to the Department of Justice.

Approximately 85 protected birds, including
waterfowl, hawks and owls, died at Exxon-Mobil
drilling and production facilities between 2004
and 2009. Most of the birds died after exposure to
hydrocarbons in uncovered natural gas well reserve
pits and wastewater storage facilities.

Also in August, OSHA cited a transport company
following a fatal accident. A 62-year-old employee
was preparing to pump a load of liquid asphalt for
road construction from one parked truck to another.
He was crushed and killed when one of the trucks
unexpectedly rolled into the other because its
parking brake wasn’t set and the wheels were not
chocked (an alleged serious violation), pinning
the man between the two trucks. Plus, the OSHA
regional administrator said the company failed to
report the fatality within the required eight hours
(an alleged other-than-serious violation).

The proposed penalty: $9,100.

Tongue lashings vs. multi-million-dollar fines

One company runs afoul (pun intended) of a
law protecting birds and pays in total more than
$3 million to make amends, and sets up an entire
new compliance program. In a case where a man is
killed on the job, in what OSHA’s regional administrator
called a “senseless and completely preventable”
accident, the proposed fine is about $9,000.

In court, I wonder, did the Department of Justice
attorneys describe Exxon-Mobil’s killing of the
migratory birds as “senseless and preventable”?

It makes no difference.

Lip service far too often substitutes for serious
legal consequences after workplace fatalities. I
don’t know enough of the details surrounding the
trucking incident, but more than 5,000 people each
year die on the job and very, very seldom is any
individual or individuals judged responsible and
jailed, or a multi-million-dollar compliance plan
mandated. The restrictions of the Occupational
Safety and Health Act and the
workers’ compensation “shield”
see to that.

Compare the consequences
of the loss of bird life to human
life and it appears: a) water
fowl, hawks and owls have better
Washington lobbyists than
humans; b) birds get better press
â€” the Associated Press devoted
all of a 127-word new brief about
the OSHA fine; c) Congressional
lawmakers have a soft spot for
migratory birds and a blind spot
for workers “senselessly” killed
on the job; and d) DOJ attorneys
have an easier time prosecuting
companies for killing birds than
for killing humans. Restrictions of
the OSH Act don’t make it worth
their while.

De-humanizing humans

These two cases mirror weird
developments in our social
conscience. The recent film,
“Inglorious Basterds,” climaxes
with a bombastic bloody massacre
of Nazis top brass and their wives
and girlfriends trapped in a movie
theatre. During the film, Nazis are
repeatedly scalped and/or carved
in the forehead with a swastika.

Imagine a film where a herd
of buffalo is graphically gunned
down. Revolting, right? All
summer long blockbuster sci-fi
thrillers and horror flicks had
characters tortured, mutilated and
murdered in ways too inventive
and numerous to count. But have
a horse killed by a stray bullet
and the film producers best issue a press release in
advance assuring us the horse was a dummy.

Another example of compassion for pets getting
more press than compassion for people: the sorry
case of pro football quarterback Michael Vick.
Sports columnists in Philadelphia still howl over
why the Philadelphia Eagles ever hired Vick. Did
they lose their minds? Vick was convicted along
with two other men of breeding and training fighting
dogs, hosting dogfights, killing dogs considered
unable to fight and traveling out of state for dogfights.
At least eight dogs were killed by various
methods, including hanging, drowning and beating
after the dogs did not perform well in “testing” sessions
for dog fights at Vick’s Virginia estate.

In December, 2007, a U.S. district judge sentenced
Vick to 23 months in prison and lectured
the former star quarterback for the Atlanta Falcons,
“You were instrumental in… cruel and inhumane
sporting activity.” Vick served 18 months of the
sentence.

Getting much less attention this year is the
case of a former Eagles player, Donte Stallworth.
Stallworth pleaded guilty to hitting and killing a
pedestrian while driving drunk at 7:15 one morning
this past March. Stallworth drew a 30-day jail sentence
and reached an undisclosed financial settlement
with the family of the man, who was leaving
his job as a crane operator when killed.

Stallworth has been suspended from play for
the 2009 season by the NFL commissioner. When
some team hires him in 2010, he won’t face howls
of protest.

Leonard Little didn’t. After a drunken birthday in
1998, NFL star Little drove his Lincoln Navigator
through a red light and crashed into a 47-year-old
mother. She died the next day. Little received 60
days and 1,000 hours of community service. Six
years later, after the involuntary manslaughter conviction
was wiped from his record, Little was again
arrested for drunk driving.

The American Heritage Dictionary defines
“inhumane” as “an act lacking in compassion or
pity, brutal, not possessing desirable human qualities.”
Hanging dogs certainly meets this criteria.
Also brutal and “not possessing desirable human
qualities” is blowing through a red light and killing
a mom, or running a man down returning
from work. We accept brutal acts in films and
video games, reckless acts that end in senseless
workplace deaths (of someone somewhere
else) without much evident compassion or pity.
Inhumane, you could say.

Sensitivities toward animal life have become
more civilized, all for the good. Sensitivity to loss
of human life, unless on a mass scale or one is personally
touched by the tragedy, is if anything less
thoughtful. Not good.

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